Minnesota’s Executive Council is set to act on 77 mineral exploration leases next week that have been delayed for a year because of concerns by private landowners that their rights could be infringed.

The council, composed of the governor and the state’s other top elected officials, twice considered the leases in 2011 but delayed action.

On Tuesday, however, notice came that the council will hold a special meeting May 31 to consider the leases. It’s expected the leases will be approved.

“My understanding is that the governor and some other members of the council wanted to move this away from their regular June meeting because of the interest. But DNR didn’t ask for this specific date or anything. The council set this,” said Larry Kramka, director of the Department of Natural Resources division of Lands and Minerals Division.

He said he knows of no changes to the original plan. “We haven’t been asked to remove any of the specific (leases). We haven’t changed anything,” Kramka said.

This is purely a political decision. Now that the election is nearing, the DFL can’t afford to look like they’re the lunatic fringe environmentalists. That would drive a wedge between the miners and the DFL.

Make no mistake, though. The Twin Cities Executive Council care more about the environmentalists than they care about the miners on the Range.

This month, Minnesota’s State Executive Council, which includes the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general and state auditor, voted to delay 77 leases to explore for copper and nickel on private lands in northern Minnesota.

This short-sighted action was initiated by Gov. Mark Dayton and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. It was unfortunate for the job situation in the Northland, and I know many Minnesotans are terribly disappointed.

After all, the people of Minnesota own the rights to minerals in the state, including those under private land. Anyone from Northeastern Minnesota knows this; I remember learning this fact in elementary school.

At the time, a handful of private property owners tried pushing the legislature into passing legislation changing the mineral rights. The legislature refused to take them seriously because it was apparent that they were stooges of the environmentalists.

This is rather telling:

Indeed, Dayton’s actions this month were more consistent with his actions two decades ago. At that time, when he was on the State Executive Council as state auditor, he called for the postponement of mining lease votes so he could consult first with the Sierra Club.

Gov. Dayton didn’t agree with miners then. He’s still fighting against them. When Prof. Kaiser wrote this editorial, it was after the Executive Council postponed taking action on lease auctions a second time.

Clearly, Gov. Dayton doesn’t care about the economy on the Iron Range. He’s just worried that the Iron Rangers will abandon the DFL in greater numbers this November.

According to the DNR, they didn’t change anything on the leases since the Executive Council voted to postpone the lease auctions:

He said he knows of no changes to the original plan. “We haven’t been asked to remove any of the specific (leases). We haven’t changed anything,” Kramka said.

It’s only a matter of time before the Iron Range abandons the DFL. What’s in it for them when the DFL is a wholly owned subsidiary of the treehuggers that inhabit the Arrowhead and the urban strongholds of St. Paul and Minneapolis.